The Center for Responsible Lending issued this press release, of great importance at a time when the Federal Department of Education is withdrawing support for students who have been victims of fraud by predatory online and for-profit “colleges.” Secretary DeVos not only stopped defending students who were defrauded, but appointed the former Dean at DeVry University to monitor the program. DeVry is one of the for-profit universities accused of defrauding students. The Department of Education hires foxes to protect the henhouse. Governor Jay Inslee has stepped up to the challenge of protecting students who were gulled by hucksters.
For Immediate Release
March 16, 2018
Gov. Inslee Signs Measure To Protect Student Borrowers
OAKLAND, CALIF. – Washington Governor Jay Inslee signed the Washington Student Education Loan Bill of Rights into law yesterday, which will provide strong protections for the more than 730,000 student loan borrowers in the state carrying $22.9 billion in student loan debt. The law will establish a Student Loan Advocate to review complaints, and will authorize the state to license student loan servicers so they can ensure compliance with state and federal requirements and prevent mistreatment such as misappropriating payments or making false reports to credit bureaus.
“We commend Governor Inslee and the Washington legislature for finding common ground to help students manage their student loan debt,”” said Ezekiel Gorrocino, Policy Associate with the Center for Responsible Lending (CRL). “These important safeguards are a step in the right direction if we want to ensure student borrowers are treated fairly as they work to pay off their college education.”
The Washington Student Education Loan Bill of Rights will help keep student loan servicers from making it harder for borrowers to manage the debt. The largest servicer in the nation, Navient, has been sued by the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau and three Attorneys General for mistreating borrowers, including putting them in forbearance when they qualified for income-based repayment plans that would have saved them a great deal in interest.
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For more information please contact Carol Hammerstein at carol.hammerstein@responsiblelending.org or 919-313-8502.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
This is how government regulation are supposed to protect its citizens… our end, though seems to favor DE-regulation in all areas because, as we all know since Reagan told us so, government is the problem and government regulations strangle creativity and growth…
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For those of us in blue states, this is the good part of Trump/DeVos: fed-ed inaction/dereg pushes states to step up to the plate. Anything that pushes ed-reg power back toward the local level is good in my book. For states that have been deregging/ defunding ed for yrs, I’m guessing they were doing a poor job of protecting students from predatory loan-collection anyway, despite fed regs.
That’s not a good thing, I know. But you can lead a horse to water etc. I think making them drink it should be a last resort for, e.g., blatant civil rights violations. IMHO states which allow ed policy to be dictated by ideologues can only change from within. For some, the lack of fed dictate will release them from mindless pushback. For the most stubborn, it will probably take coming up against the marketplace — e.g., natl/ intl businesses won’t locate there because the ed is so bad.
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